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DEC units on ebay

Then there is this guy. I'll call him clueless, but I'd like to call him worse. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe there was a valid reason for parting out a VAXstation 3200... But I think he just didn't want to ship anything big. 😖

www.ebay.com

Vintage DEC Digital CPU Memory Badge RAM Backplane QBUS H7B64B BA23 Computer Vax | eBay

I am parting out a DEC VAXStation 3200 from a BA23 chasis. The CPU, two memory cards, the H7B64-B BA23 power supply and some miscellanious parts like mounting sleds for drives and front panel plus badge are included. I have many other parts, including the chasis plastic casing (tower version)...
www.ebay.com
 
reinhardtjh said:
Unfortunately, only a partial system. Missing I/O and memory cabs

www.ebay.com

DEC KL10 processor cabinet [10422] | eBay

Reasonably good caster wheels. The power supplies like to open the back doors by themselves and swing out, tipping the cabinet back off its front wheels with a satisfyingly loud crash. There are supposed to be pull-out braces in back to keep it from tipping but they appear to be missing.
www.ebay.com
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Interesting. Is that the complete CPU?

Edit. Looks like most of the CPU is there, but the main cache boards are missing. Which is weird since it's supposed to be a "B" model. Crud.
 
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Great. That 2065 is still there.... Tempting.....

But a 785 is probably the biggest system a normal person could hope to fix. I doubt there are ECL chips out there anymore.
 
czunit said:
Great. That 2065 is still there.... Tempting.....

But a 785 is probably the biggest system a normal person could hope to fix. I doubt there are ECL chips out there anymore.
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I have a shoebox size storage bin full of what I believe to be Fairchild ECL chips. Didn't realize they were sought after!
 
Eh..... Seriously how many of us could unclog an ECL related problem. Different chips, macro-cell arrays that no longer exist, pretty custom stuff. The 785 is good old fashioned 74LS class stuff so you can unsolder and test individual bits.
 
I don’t have any experience with debugging ECL hardware (yet?). I could not realistically adopt an 11/78x sized system right now even if it was local and free, but I still dream of hearing a TU77 again. I hope that whoever adopts that system will share their adventure online.
 
Yeah, I'd have to get my kid to move out to get the old bedroom wired with 240 volt circuits (old home of the AI 2020+TU77). Of course there is the simple truth that a Microvax 2 is on par with the 780 (ok the 785 is faster but)....
 
Right now, all of my time and money are going towards helping my elderly doggy. It sounds like we can both imagine a way to cram a VAX-11/785 into the home, but not right now due to higher priorities and the remaining shreds of our sanity. I already have faster (microvax, vaxstation) and slower (11/730) VAXen, but there's nostalgic appeal in absurdly impractical old computer beasts that we'd only turn on for more than a half hour in winter time.
 
czunit said:
Eh..... Seriously how many of us could unclog an ECL related problem. Different chips, macro-cell arrays that no longer exist, pretty custom stuff. The 785 is good old fashioned 74LS class stuff so you can unsolder and test individual bits.
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Likely to be just standard Fairchild 10k series chips or possibly Motorola MECL. It was designed before any ECL macro cells were available. VAX9000 was ECL macro cells and also the VAX8600. But of course ECL is a bit trickier to deal with as it is current oriented rather than levels. A quick check indictated that it is still possible to buy 10k chips from manufacturers. Probably expensive. Likely that these manufacturers target military customers.
 
That comment about military customers makes sense. I currently work for a small defense contractor, and regularly get involved with (re)designing against specifications descended from 1960s and 1970s programs. Dealing with building hardware designed with components decades out of production raises lots of challenges for us. Sometimes I daydream about an imaginary project where they need a 2024 cycle-accurate re-implementation of something like an embedded VAX or PDP or Nova. That would be fun, and replacing a rack with a milled block of aluminum the size of a couple of Altoids tins would make me giggle uncontrollably.
 
2012-11-03_23-42-32_664.jpgWhoah, I wonder if that Ebay item is this? Any way to match based on scratches and such?
 
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